Bedroom Farce by Alan Ayckbourn.
Directed by Aarne Neeme AM. Set
design by Andrew Kay. Costumes by Dr. Cate Clelland. Lighting design Mike
Maloney. Sound design James Macpherson. Properties and set dressing Mandy
Brown.Production Manager Anne Gallen. Stage Manager Paul Jackson. Canberra rep.
Theatre 3 B February 20 – March 7 2026ookings 62571950 www.canberrarep.org.au
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins.
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| Pat Gallagher (Ernest) and Sally Rynveld (Delia) in Bedroom Farce |
Bedroom Farce is classic Ayckbourn. The master of British domestic comedy, Alan Ayckbourn’s prolific output for over more than fifty years exposes the absurdity of middle-class social manners. In Bedroom Farce Ayckbourn once again juggles location and relationships to probe the farcical nature of married life. The physical comedy of the piece draws on the elements of hilarious farce while the characters reveal the foibles and the frailties of the human condition as exposed in their marital life.
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| Kate (Antonia Kitzel) and Malcolm (Lachlan Abrahams) in Bedroom Farce |
Director Aarne Neeme in Rep’s very cleverly staged production focuses more on the farce and less perhaps on the serious aspects of relationships within the marriage. Director Neeme has chosen to emphasise the comical absurdity of behaviour rather than the more serious aspects of the four marriages presented in Bedroom Farce. The flaws are apparent, but we are more consumed by the comedy than the deeper insight into the marital state. In Rep’s production currently being staged at Theatre 3 it makes for a very entertaining evening with plenty of laughs that may for some members of an audience disguise the more serious side of the couple’s relationship. Ayckbourn’s witty experiment with cut across situations and interconnected relationships is more akin to the farcical circumstance that occurs on the stage than Ayckbourn’s possible commentary on his tribe. For some in the audience on opening night, Bedroom Farce was belly laugh comedy, while others adopted a more pensive interest in the plight of characters caught in unexpected situations.
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| Lara Connolly (Susannah) Pat Gallagher (Ernest) and Saly Rynveld (Delia) in Bedroom Farce |
Designer Cate Clelland has managed to follow Ayckbourn’s invention of three separate bedrooms on the stage, belonging to three very different intergenerational couples. Ernest (Pat Gallagher) and Delia (Sally Rynveld are an older couple. They have a hyperactive son Trevor (James Grudnoff) who is married to the highly strung Susannah (Lara Connolly). In the second bedroom middle aged couple Malcolm (Lachlan Abrahams) and Kate (Antonia Kitzel) keep their marriage alive by playing pranks on each other. In the third bedroom Nick is confined to bed with a bad back so that his wife Jan decides to go alone to a party being held at Malcolm and Kate’s, which Trevor and Susannah also attend.
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| Rob De Fries (Nick) and Trevor ( John Grudnoff) in Bedroom Farce |
The scene is set for a series of ridiculous carryings-on. Neeme and his strong cast make the most of every hilarious comic moment. Rob De Fries’s fall from the bed and agonizing attempt to return had a group near me in stitches. Anyone who has tackled an IKEA flat pack would sympathise with Abraham’s portrayal of Malcolm’s attempts to put together a present for Kate. Young couple Trevor and Susannah represent the kind of guests who would create chaos wherever they went and Grundoff and Connolly perfect the art of infuriation.
Neeme ensures that Bedroom Farce is packed
with comic physical business, madness, movement and mayhem. Rep’s production of
Bedroom Farce is amusing, though I
wonder whether Ayckbourn’s satirical bite has lost its sting. If it’s an
entertaining night at the theatre that you are after then Bedroom Farce will fill the bill.
Photos by Cathy Breen